About Curry County, OR

Every winter these adorable critters come around scavaging for food in our neighborhood in the coastal forest. This photo was taken only moments after these two masked bandits made a raid on our cats' Whiskas bowl. I don't know who was more startled, these hungry adolescent critters or my wife who went out to take the bowl inside. We don't make a practice of feeding them and we don't encourage others to feed them but we do enjoy their visits. Racoons are playful and rolly-polly. We love to watch them play and listen to their churring sounds. If you haven't heard their growls - it is amazing. My wife and I heard a mama growling at her kits. It almost sounds like a mountain lion.

According to Linda Tarr, when the rare opportunity to apply for a full-power FM radio construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission arose, North Curry Families' and Children's Center agreed to be the 501C3 organization to respond. This was the beginning of North Curry Community Radio.

While working through the FCC's permitting process, North Curry Community Radio partnered with the Rural Design Collective, a remote mentoring program with a local focus, designed to help motivated, creative people begin a career on the Internet. This partnership resulted in the website www.nccradio.org.

By visiting their website, one can get a clear sense of what community radio in North Curry County will be about, including sound pieces produced by local people, available through streaming audio. The latest sound piece is by Ann Vileisis, a local author, whose book, "Kitchen Literacy: how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back," encourages a shopper to support local farmers and sustainable agriculture. The subject of this piece is the Valley Flora Family Farm operated by Betsy Harrison and Abby and Zoë Bradbury, a mom and two sisters, who grow delicious organic fruits and vegetables. The sisters talk about their work, their inspirations, and their motivations to grow great food.

This is an example of the kind of media that North Curry Community radio hopes to bring to our communities on a regular basis, but quality content requires time and money. To that end, we are applying for funding to provide equipment, training, and payment for local people who wish to become radio producers. In applying for grants, North Curry Families' and Children's Center is the organization which provides administrative support through their director, Ollie Jones. And, in the event that the grants are awarded, NCFCC will be the fiscal agent which administers those funds.

Check out their site, www.nccradio.org, you can learn more about North Curry County and find ways to get involved and contribute to this exciting project.

‘Kitchen Witches,’ written by Caroline Smith, is a comedy in which two culinary divas unfold the story of their 30 year rivalry over the man they both loved while preparing recipes that are seasoned with insults, mixed with laughs and served with a twist of love. Kitchen Witches creates some hilarious situations and memorable moments between two women who used to be friends and now have to share a cable network cooking show that could rival the TV shows of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich. Their thespian cookery is made to order for a night of unforgettable comedic theatre performed by the cast of Theatre 101 in Port Orford.

When you are in town check the schedule for Theatre 101 performances at the Seaside Plaza - http://www.theatre101portorford.com/

When you attend a performance don't miss the opportunity during intermission to enjoy some hand made chocolates and gourmet coffees at Sirens Coffee Shop adjacent to the playhouse.

Port Orford has chosen to participate in the Oregon ‘Main Street' program, a statewide initiative to revitalize commercial districts through the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.

According to the Department's website, the underlying premise of Main Street is to encourage economic development within the context of historic preservation in ways appropriate to today's marektplace. This approach advocates a return to community self-reliance, local empowermanet, and the rebuilding of traditional districts based on their unique assets: distinctive architecture, a pedestrian-friendly environment, personal service, local ownership and a sense of community.

The Main Street program, in partnership with the National Trust Main Street Center, collaborate to provide the support necessary to assist communities in building or when necessary re-building viable commercial districts.

The program employs the four point Main Street approach developed by the National Trust for commercial district revitalization. The National Trust's proven approach combines historic preservation with economic development to restore prosperity and vitality to downtown business districts. The approach focuses on:

ORGANIZATION - Assembles public/private leaders within communities to work toward the same revitalization goals.

PROMOTION - Sells a positive brand image of the commercial district drawing visitors, shoppers, and investors downtown.

DESIGN - enhances both livability and attraction of the district by rehabilitating historic buildings, creating pedestrian-oriented streets and encouraging context-sensitive new construction.

ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING - Strengthens a community's existing assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base. Main Street sharpens the competitiveness of existing business and attracts compatible new businesses to the district.

The program provides guidance, planning, design, and technical assistance to participating organizations to help them to successfully use the approach, to identify funding sources and to secure funding for their projects.

The initial success of our pre-program revitalization efforts can be seen in the progress our Dark Skies initiative; the remodeling of the Seaside Plaza/Theater 101, the Savoy Theater, the Hard Rain Cafe, and the Crazy Norwegian restaurant; and the new Hawthorne Gallery, Sculpture Garden and Restaurant complex under construction at Battle Rock Park.

Port Orford is a small town on the southwest coast of Oregon with a population of approximately 1200 people. Our town has a small business district and only 1 major highway, Hwy 101, going through it. Members of the Kalmiopsis Audubon Society and other concerned residents were moved to action in 2005. They wanted to preserve and protect our natural Dark Sky heritage. They conducted a lighting assessment and learned that the comparatively small amount of lighting infrastructure that we do have was poorly designed and it was polluting our night skies. Over the next few years after identifying the problem our local group of activists took a series of actions to educate, re-enforce awareness, and build consensus among the decision makers at state departments, local governments, utility companies, businesses, and private property owners. They developed a plan, obtained the necessary approvals, obtained grant funding, some donations and then worked quietly and effectively to modify, or remove and replace, inappropriate street lights that were polluting the night skies and obscuring the natural nightscapes with an ‘orange glow.'

Their efforts made a significant reduction in the amount of light pollution and greatly improved our local nightscapes. Today, thanks to their efforts, the view of the night sky from our dark site is awesome. On a clear night you can see an eye full of stars gently twinkling from horizon to horizon as they have since time began.

You really should come to Port Orford. Our nightscapes, seascapes, landscapes, and waterscapes are truly inspiring and some would say a life-changing experience.

For more information on the International Dark Sky Association go to - http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=59796